Friday, June 22, 2012

Ruining Business in Japan and All Around: USA Pushing Iran and N. Korea Into a Shooting War

In spite of US government claims to the contrary, US government policy towards Iran and North Korea cannot be described as anything but pushing those two countries into a corner to start a shooting war. The USA hypocritically claims to want peace and to be working towards peace, but the policies the USA pursues can only lead to war.

Japanese bank

A fair observer of these US policies cannot come to the conclusion that US actions are designed for peace. No! A fair and objective observer could only come to the conclusion that US policy is designed to start a war and make it look like the other side started the shooting.

As in many wars of the past, the US government acts like an innocent. But actions show the US government to be merely performing tricks and lying to maneuver the "other side" to take the first shot! Then the USA can claim, "they started it!" in some cynical attempt to gain some moral high ground.

Despite already being engaged in drone wars in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and still occupying Afghanistan, the U.S. is being duped into yet another war based on shaky evidence and at the behest of deep-pocketed special interests. This is coming even while a secretive cyber war already being waged to damage Iran’s nuclear capability. According to the Pentagon, “computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war.” Not only that, but the draconian sanctions thus far placed on Iran are doing enormous harm to the citizens who hardly have a say in what their government does. The Belgium-based SWIFT payment system that facilitates most international payments has already denied service to many Iranian banks. With the imposing of an oil embargo from the European Union just around the corner (July 1st) that will all but make it impossible for oil tankers to be insured by Lloyd’s of London, an actual naval blockade is being floated by U.S. lawmakers. Much like the Antebellum South and Japan, Iran too is being pushed into a corner.

What makes the campaign to extend the War on Terror to Iran is that the anti-American sentiment in the higher echelons of its government are only a consequence of previous meddling. After Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh nationalized the oil industry in 1953, British Petroleumused the CIAto overthrow the popular leader and putthe Shahback in power whose authoritarian rule would be financially supported by the U.S. up to the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Then and now, wealthy special interests are a driving force behind American imperialism. Lies will be spun till they are seen as facts. When the truth comes out, the irreparable damage will already be done. Like anything the state lays its filthy hands on, war is a racket. The beneficiaries of the ruling class’s gleeful foray into mass murder are few in number. The masses, still brainwashed into feverish nationalism, end up paying the costs with their pilfered income, eroded liberty, and, ultimately, their own lives.

The levels of US criminality and hypocrisy are astounding.

Now, for the first time in my life, I have seen with my own eyes how these sanctions against Iran and North Korea are affecting the lives of normal people. I have seen it in the last two weeks in running a business in Japan.

The view is not pretty.

On May 29th, I founded a new company in Tokyo. I can't go into too many details but this company is a strong supporter of independent and small businesses - the lifeblood of a nation's economy. The business plan for this company has been presented to the Japanese government and they were so happy and impressed with the plan that we were given a government grant to proceed.

I have even presented the business plan and projections to investors and have brought on board two in this short time.

But Japanese banks? So sorry!

The Japanese banks have been a totally different story! The banks don't seem to want new businesses. In fact, Mizuho Bank, one of Japan's mega-banks has rejected our application twice. This, in spite of the fact that I founded another company that has an account at Mizuho bank and that company runs a fair amount of money (not a massive sum, but respectable) through that account and it is in a partnership with one of the biggest corporations in all of Japan! No matter!

New account? Nope. No dice.

I find out later that it's because of new stricter rules on Japanese banks concerning money laundering.

Past track records and other companies started and ran for profit don't matter. What does matter is "new accounts." "New business idea?!" That smells like money laundering!!!! If they don't understand at the banks (trust that drones don't understand anything but traditional business styles) then they will reject your company bank application!

Talk about ruining the environment for new businesses!

When I complained to one of my friends who runs one of the biggest multi-national companies in the world, he told me that it was because of the "USA enforced Oil embargo against Iran and sanctions on North Korea... Just like the USA did to Japan in WWII, US policy is pushing these countries into war."

Amazing the the US is following on their global plans.General Clark talked about a 2001 anecdote: "As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. ... This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan."

A long distance observation: The Chinese saying of the when the elephants fight (nations/ideologies) its the grass (smaller business people/customer) that suffers. I see in the news that the real big Japanese companies are dealing to get vitally needed oil from Iran under whatever imposed limits. I would suspect they are better protected and have greater pull with the banks and government. The US politicians in the Obama administration are 'unfortunately or predictably' not listing the harmful effects this does to others. They tell us that small businesses are most of the jobs in the US, I am not sure how it works in Japan but I would suspect its higher also. If it is; are they not getting robbed by these policies?

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About Me

In Japan for 29 years... Currently founder and owner of Universal Vision Ltd. and Co-Founder of Smart Research. I have four children and I just love Japan. I also write for LewRockwell.com. Here are my archives:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers-arch.html